


Waking Up

by starprise_entership



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Episode Tag: ‘Distant Voices’, M/M, also featuring Sisko and Dax, also partially inspired by this week’s discovery i guess, an alternative to the ending of distant voices i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-22
Updated: 2018-01-22
Packaged: 2019-03-08 04:26:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 993
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13450521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starprise_entership/pseuds/starprise_entership
Summary: Trapped in Alvotar’s Letheian mental trap, Julian has to snap himself out of the own world he’s created for himself before it collapses down around him.





	Waking Up

The last thing Julian remembers is Altovar disintegrating in the quarantine field, leaving not even the slightest speck of dust behind.

And then, the station coming back to life again.

Picking himself up off the floor, he takes his first steps into this world. He astonishedly examines the back of his hands, relieved that he’s been returned to his original state. His thirty-year-old body certainly feels like a dream compared to the hundred-year-old one he’s been put into earlier.

The Promenade is quiet, peaceful even. It’s always like this at the crack of dawn, or at least at 06 00 hours, for dawn and dusk mean different things here. Young, bright-eyed children skip along the Promenade on the way to school. The replimat’s starting to fill up. Shopowners pull away the blinds from their shops and turn on their lights, their warm and pleasant shop interiors welcoming. The life here is as evident as the spring in Julian’s step, a far cry from the dark, twisted version of the station Altovar forcefully shoved him into.

“Doctor.” Some time ago, Garak seemed to have joined him on his morning stroll. “I’m glad to see that you’re up and moving again.”

Julian beams. “Thank you very much. And I can’t be happier to be back.”

“To me, it seemed almost like improbable luck. There was a frighteningly high chance that you would not make it back.” Garak puts forth. “You could say, even, that I was worried for your survival.”

“Worried?” Julian’s ears perk up in alarm. _Garak never tells me what he really feels. Or is he making an exception this one time?_ “You sound like you were betting against me.”

“I wouldn’t say that, dear Doctor.” Garak pauses in his footsteps, and turns to face Julian. His hands reach out to find Julian’s, and cradles them gently in his. “In fact, I would admit that I was with you every step of the way.”

Julian forcefully pulls his hands away. “No, this isn’t real.”

“Truth is in the eye of the beholder, Doctor.” Garak says, and that sentence in itself sends a shiver down Julian’s spine. He’s sure he’s heard that line before, and it sticks out in his brilliant memory.

“The Lethean, he’s using my memories. To trap me in my own mind as a last resort if he knew he was going to fail.” It hits Julian like a tonne of bricks. “Everything around me is just my fantasy, my way of looking at how I would like things to be. So that I’d stay here.”

“Ever the suspicious one, Doctor.” Garak gives one of his mildly gratifying, mildly unnerving grins. “I suppose that’s why you couldn’t trust me in the beginning. The question is, Doctor, would you trust me now?”

“You’re not real. And I truly believe it.” Julian insists, making eye-contact with Garak. “But I can’t snap myself out of this.”

“Oh, you positively can.” Garak assures, putting a hand on Julian’s shoulder. Julian doesn’t even have the heart to brush him away, but he has to find a solution to this fast.

The dread hits him like a dark shadow out of nowhere.

“We have to run,” realises Julian, as the darkness approaches him like a predator devouring its prey. “Run to a safe place before my mind collapses in on myself.”

“You can’t outrun it, Doctor.” Garak reminds. “The only solution to this, is to wake up.”

“Wake up?” Julian reiterates, louder. The shadows approach, creeping along at a dangerously fast pace. _Fifty meters. Fourty-five. Fourty._

“Open your eyes, Doctor. Deep inside, you don’t want to leave this place.”

“Yes, because it’s my fantasy world and of course I’d be stuck here with you.” Julian groans. “And now I’d have to make this scenario so unbelievable that I’ll snap out of it. Like pinching myself, except I wouldn’t think that would work in this case –” He turns to run again, but Garak grabs him firmly by the arm and holds him in place.

Garak stares him down, dead serious. “Kiss me, Julian,” He offers, and at that point Julian knows that either it’s his only ticket out of here or he’s gone too far for anyone to save him. _Well, what have I got to lose at this point? Either I open my eyes and find myself in the real world, or, or I’m going to die in this coma while my fantasy world crashes down around me._ Stepping closer, it’s a moment of desperation as Julian crashes his lips against Garak’s, and then there’s a moment of realisation that he’s going into the light, _he’s going into the light -_

“I believe he’s starting to come round now.” Garak’s voice rings through the haze, clear as a bell. And then the rest of the world shifts into focus. Slightly dazed, Julian takes a moment to glance at the people around him. _Dax. Sisko. Jabara. And Garak._ Julian glances down at his hand to find Garak’s hand resting lightly atop his.

“I think we could extend visiting hours for just a while longer,” Nurse Jabara suggests, and leaves the room.

Now left with only Dax, Sisko, Garak and himself in the room, Julian takes a short while to gather his thoughts.

“Welcome back, Doctor.” Sisko says, in a congratulatory manner. Dax gives a small, encouraging nod before Julian turns his gaze back to Garak again.

“Is there something, Doctor?” Garak raises an eye-ridge. It only takes an instant to respond but Julian swiftly pulls Garak down to his level, giving him a warm embrace. And that’s when everything around him feels so concrete, so real.

“I’ll explain everything later,” Julian assures, softly.

Garak accepts Julian’s hug with a mildly bewildered expression on his face. “I’m sure you will, after you’ve fully recovered. Now if you’ll excuse us, I’m sure Nurse Jabara would want all of us to take our leave so that you can get on with recuperating.”

 


End file.
